1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process and apparatus for transferring prints from a support to a substrate, and more particularly to a process and apparatus for transferring prints from a support to a substrate having rows of print portions each including a defined surface portion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A process for transferring a stamping foil print from a stamping foil on to a substrate and an apparatus for carrying out that process are known from DE 32 10 551 C2. That process and the apparatus are suitable for virtually endlessly impressing a substrate in the form of a flexible web of material, with a print, in the direction of forward feed movement of the substrate. The substrate may be for example a magnetic strip on a ticket or a decorative endless strip which covers a corresponding print portion, that is to say a ticket or the like, in the direction of transportation movement of the substrate from one edge of the corresponding print portion as far as the oppositely disposed edge therof.
If that known process or the apparatus provided for carrying it into effect are to be used to impress individual prints on to a substrate having print portions in succession in accurate register relationship, the distance between adjacent prints in the direction of transportation of the hot stamping foil precisely corresponds to the spacing of the print portions in the direction of transportation movement of the substrate, which is parallel to the direction of transportation movement of the hot stamfping foil. Due to that spacing between the stamping foil prints, there is between them a not inconsiderable unused empty space, that is to say stamping foil waste, and that has an effect on the economy of that known process and the apparatus provided for carrying it into effect when stamping individual images.